Medieval Jainism

SR No.: 011082
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhasker Anand Saletore
Publisher: Karnataka Publishing House
Total Pages: 448
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM ism. There may be some justification for the view that Jainisin in the Andhradeśa can be traced to the pre-Mauran days, when we consider the notices of Jaina tradition that Mahāvīra prcached Jainism in Kalinga. The Hāribhadrīyav;lti says that Mahāvīra went to Kalinga where his father's friend was ruling. That this tradition has some semblance of truth in it, and that Jainism must have made some headway in the days of king Khāravela is proved by the Hāthigumpha record of that powerful monarch (first half of the second century B.C.) In this inscription it is said that that monarch set up an image of Jina in Kalinga which had been taken away by king Nanda. Further we are told in the same inscription that in the thirteenth regnal year of king Khāravela on the Kumāri hill where the Wheel of Conquest had been well revolved (i.e., the religion of Jina had been preached), the great conqueror Khāravela offered maintenances, China cloths, and white cloths to the monks who (by thcir austerities) had extinguished the round of lives, and to the preachers on the religious life and conduct at the nisidhi.
King Khāravela himself, therefore, was a devout Jaina. As a layman he was devoted to worship, and he realized the nature of jīva and deha. He ordered an assemblage of all the wise ascetics and sages from all quarters. And to this Great Council (sariighayana) came śramaņas of good deeds and those who followed the injunctions. And near the Relic Depository of the Avhat on the top of the hill (evidently on the Kumāri) he caused to be built (a grcat basadi) with
1. Seshagiri Rao, Andhra-Karnataka Jainism, pp. 3-4. (Madras, 1922).
2. Read Journal of the Bihar & Orissa Research Society; XIII, p. 223.
3. Cited in E. 1. XX, p. 88, n (10).